Wednesday, February 17, 2010

See the full article for details. I think this general pattern (in the immediate-term, the incumbent players have more to lose than Google has to gain) is evident in several markets in which Google is investing. I also think the wireless “stupid network” is a market inevitability, however.

Good luck to Eric Schmidt in trying to reassure the Telcos that Google is their friend and partner. Just look at the list above.

It seems as if Google has not considered the strategic implications of its actions on wireless operators, and its other partners.

Nearly all of its actions in the list above do nothing to increase revenues for Google.

They are all outside of its core business: selling advertising related to search.

Yet those actions have put the wireless operators on guard. They can now take steps that can impact Google's revenues much sooner than Google's actions can improve revenues for Google.

This is a strategic blunder on Google's part because the wireless operators are in a much stronger position than Google.